Long , Stressful Journey; Hopefully, Safe Arrival

My brother, his wife, their 20 month old son and 3 month old baby daughter and his mother- and father-in-law boarded a flight yesterday in Auckland, New Zealand to São Paulo, Brazil (via Santiago, Chile). After a total of seven years abroad they are returning to Brazil (for who knows how long!).

My mom already talked to their Brazilian nanny and his sister-in-law who stayed back in New Zealand, so we know that their departure was extremely stressful. They were renting a beautiful 5-bedroom house from a Chinese man who, at the last minute, when they were leaving and giving him the keys to the house, was extremely rude and told them that the house was dusty (when it had just been thoroughly cleaned by someone they hired, so it was not!).

He also claimed that there was a stain in the carpet (which had previously been there) and he made them pay 150 NZ dollars because my brother had already deleted the photos he'd taken of the house prior to the move!! :-(  My sister-in-law was so mad that started cursing him in Mandarin (they lived 2 years in China, you may remember). Sigh...

Then at the airport they were all so nervous that nobody cried, only their nephew (who's the same age as my youngest son, 9) -- he and his mom are going to be in NZ for 1.5 year longer (they arrived back in January).

The biggest worry about the trip, however, was how my niece was going to handle it. She has really bad acid reflux which wasn't really treated in NZ (in Brazil they start medications when newborns are only 2 weeks old, for up to a year), so she barely nurses (and barely gains weight) and cries from pain and hunger A LOT. We'll find out how the flights went when they arrive this afternoon (I will only call my mom later when they're already home).

They're supposed to board their flight from Santiago to São Paulo right now, so I hope it worked out (their previous flight arrived only 40 minutes before the second flight's departure). My mom called their cell phones, but they didn't answer (I called before writing this post, obviously).

We're all anxiously waiting! Hopefully it won't have been that bad. Sigh...

Edited to add:
They arrived safely and my niece cried only 20 minutes on each of the flights. They were unable to bring all of their belongings from NZ back to Brazil (when they had moved from China to NZ they had stuff -- including furniture! -- shipped to NZ, but all had to say there). So they're starting mostly from scratch again where keeping & furnishing a house is concerned. I will be able to give them the many dishes (mostly plates, cups, saucers, dessert plates) and some other kitchen things and towels & bedding that my mom was still keeping for us from when we left Brazil 17 years ago!! I hope she can make good use of my wedding gifts that remained in Brazil!